The vast majority of Hertz mentions occurs via Twitter. While the company has a decent Facebook following (35,000) its followers don't post much on the Hertz wall (other than to respond to Hertz postings and questions). Twitter on the other hand yields a handful of mentions per hour.
Some of these mentions are extremely negative. For example, there is a website called Hertz Hate that collects and posts all the negative mentions about the Hertz brand from consumers. Are there thousands of mentions on this page? No, but there might be enough to make someone consider using a different rental car provider.
Many of the negative tweets were from frustrated customers who were upset about time spent waiting for cars, being overcharged, or given a crappy rental car. Some of these customers took their frustration to the blogosphere. One such customer posted a blog titled "In which Hertz pisses me off." While it is difficult to quantify the exact reach of this blog, it was still retweeted six times and had 39 comments.
Job postings for Hertz are also posted via discussion boards and twitter feeds, as are rental deals. Hertz recently launched Hertz on Demand, a low rate hourly rental service to compete with Zipcars. The sentiment for this new offering is mixed. Some users have complained that Hertz on Demand is not environmentally friendly (like Zipcar) and that the page on the website needs to be updated. Some though have praised it as a nice alternative to taking a taxi.
Interestingly enough Hertz is quick to point out that it doesn't intend to use its social media pages for customer support. Instead Hertz encourages customers to call its customer support line or go to its website. The company will occasionally respond to complaints on social media sites, but it doesn't seem to do a good job. Jameson Boyce complained about Hertz charging him an extra $200 on top of the quoted price. Hertz reached out and asked Boyce to follow the company so it could send him a direct message and resolve the problem. Boyce did follow but Hertz never reached out, leading Boyce to post the following tweet.
It's possible Hertz might not have responded to Jameson because it was the weekend and its social media team was off. But even so, this is extremely poor customer service and will only serve to alienate Jameson and his followers more. As of Tuesday, a full five days after Hertz said it would reach out to Jameson, Hertz still hasn't contacted him. Jameson has vowed never to use Hertz again. This is a great example of a company failing to use Twitter for customer support. If they have done one thing by not responding to Jameson and other customers it's this: they've energized them in a way that could have negative consequences towards the reputation of the brand.
The overall sentiment of the brand appears to be neutral but its tilted toward negative. I found more negative posts than I did positive.
Interesting post, I didn't know that a big worlwide company such as Hertz still lacking on the use of social media. In my point of view, they should engage more on social media to avoid brand damage.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Yachinta. What a missed opportunity for Hertz to not engage with customers in situations like the complaint by Jameson Boyce. Service organizations like car rental companies should be on top of customer service whether it's a phone call or a message on Twitter. Looks like there is lots of room for Hertz to improve!
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